Generals have two chances for Christmas win

Still searching for their first win on the road this season, the Save-On-Foods Oceanside Generals will have two cracks at it before the Christmas break this weekend.

Tonight the Generals travel to Nanaimo to take on the Nanaimo Buccaneers, who are currently sitting third in the North Division, 24 points clear of the Generals. The Gens are looking for their second win in six games against the Buccaneers.

“We just need to focus on playing 60 minutes of hockey,” forward Mathieu Jallabert said.

“We’re out there working hard and doing what we can to try and win the game but we need to play a full game, stay disciplined and keep working hard.”

The Generals are coming off back-to-back losses from last week and have lost six in a row.

It’s something that interim head coach Rob Gaudreault knows has been challenging for his team but feels they’re not that far off.

“This is a team that works very hard on the ice,” Gaudreault said.

“They’re playing competitive hockey and sometimes it just gets away from us. Whether it’s our discipline, a bad bounce or a goal that goes in that we shouldn’t have had go in as a team, they are still working hard to get the win regardless of the way the game is going.”

Saturday the Generals are back at home taking on the Campbell River Storm

(7:30 p.m. puck drop at Oceanside Place), who put up 17 goals on them the last time the two teams met two weeks ago.

It’s something that the team has tried to put behind them but they also know that it’s not going to be an easy task, taking on the first place team in the league.

“We know that we can beat them, we’ve beaten them before,” goaltender David Anderson said.

“We just need to play that competitive game that we know we can play. It’s not for a lack of trying because we’ve been in every game and we keep it competitive every time out there. We just need to tighten things up in a few areas and if we can do that, we should be in good shape.”

The Generals will hit the ice again on Monday night for another battle against the Comox Valley Glacier Kings.

The last time these two teams met, tempers boiled over on the ice and resulted in five players being ejected, in total, from the game.

“Things get tough when you have a short roster to begin with,” Jallabert said.

“With the fights and Longmore getting thrown out of the game too, it just made things a lot tougher out on the ice but it’s something that we’re going to have to shake off. We’ve got some injuries and we’ve lost some players to trades so we need to just focus on who’s here and make it happen.”

With the trades that have been made, Jallabert now sits at the top of the list for scoring with 19 points (six goals, 13 assists) in the 19 games he’s suited up for this season for the Generals.